Creating a film ain't what it used to be. When I started Raindance in the early 1990's, one had to get a camera, expensive film stock and a big wad of cash. Once you finished your movie it was pretty much straight forward: you sold it using the services of a sales agent. Providing the movie was half way decent, that the actors fell down in the right places and there was a bit of violence and sex - well actually, a lot of violence and/or sex, you pretty much got the dough to do it again.

Here we are in the teenies - and a lot has changed. Gone are the sales agents with the fat advances. Gone too are the expensive film cameras. So, what's different and how can you make a buck?

1. Getting a team

A film team in this market is not just the writer, director and producert of ye olde film days. It now has to include what Jon Reiss has dubbed: a PMD: Producer of Media and Distribution. The PMD handles the social media and crowd funding while the prodiucer/writer/director handle the visual storytelling;

2. Creating A Personal Brand

It's all about branding and remember: branding has nothing to do with logos opr websites. It's what people really think about you.

Filmmakers have a unique challenge for they really need to create two brands - one for themselves personally, and one for each movie they make. Figure out your film career brand strategy.

3. Using Social Media

I don’t care if you don’t like it. If you are going to increase your

odds of movie success, you need to find out how to become a movie marketer. To get started, I recommend spending as much time as possible learning about internet marketing.

Two rules of internet marketing for filmmakers:

Have more time than money? Create content to get search ranking.

Have more money than time? ADVERTISE!

It is always more fun to get free traffic. But if you gotta pay for traffic, there is nothing wrong with that either (assuming you have the money). And in case you don’t know, with movie distribution all messed up, you will have to become your own distributor.

Best to find out everything you can!

In my next filmmaking article, I’ll talk about some simple marketing tips all filmmaker’s need to know. I'll be using some big little words like SEO too.

Fade Out

Remember: To get really good at anything in life, sometimes you need to do what you don't like doing.

Canadian born Elliot Grove founded Raindance Film Festival in 1993, the British Independent Film Awards in 1998, and Raindance.TV in 2007, the Raindance Postgraduate Film Degree in 2011 and Raindance Raw Talent in 2013.

He has produced over 150 short films, and 5 feature films incuding his latest feature film, Deadly Virtues: Love.Honour.Obey. He has written eight scripts, one of which is currently in pre-production. He teaches writers and producers in the UK, Europe. Japan and America.